Stock Peer Benchmarking API
Last updated:
Retrieve financial metrics for every company in an industry or sector — with sector median and average pre-computed — in a single API call. Every other peer API returns a list of ticker symbols and stops there. This one returns the actual values, so a benchmarking dataset that would take hundreds of sequential calls anywhere else takes one here. Free to use.
Use alongside other endpoints: Pair with the Financial Statements API to build your metric names — every column returned by that endpoint is a valid cols value here. Use the Stock Screener API to filter stocks before benchmarking them against their peer group.
https://data.businessquant.com/peers?{identifier}&cols={cols}&api_key={api_key}
Parameters
You must provide an API key and exactly one Identifier — ticker, sector, or industry. The cols parameter is optional; omitting it returns identity and market cap fields only.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| api_key |
Required
Your unique API key for authentication.
|
| ticker |
Conditional
Identifier
Stock ticker to automatically resolve the company's industry and return all peers in that same industry.
Format:
ticker=AAPL |
| sector |
Conditional
Identifier
Broad market sector — returns all companies in that sector as the peer group.
Format:
sector=Consumer%20Defensive(must be URL-encoded) |
| industry |
Conditional
Identifier
Specific industry — returns all companies in that industry as the peer group.
Format:
industry=Software%20-%20Application(must be URL-encoded) |
| cols |
Optional
Comma-separated list of metric names to fetch for every peer. Any metric available in the Financial Statements API is valid here.
Format:
cols=Gross%20Profit%20(Quarter),Net%20Income%20(Quarter)(must be URL-encoded) |
Response Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| metadata | Request summary — filter_used (ticker/sector/industry), resolved sector, resolved industry, and total_peers count. |
| summary_statistics | Pre-computed median and average for every requested metric across the full peer group — ready to use as sector benchmarks. |
| data[].ticker | Stock ticker symbol. |
| data[].cik | SEC Central Index Key — links this company to all SEC filing endpoints. |
| data[].companyname | Full legal company name as registered with the SEC. |
| data[].sector / industry | Sector and industry classification for each peer — useful when querying by ticker and the peer group spans multiple sub-industries. |
| data[].Market Cap | Current market capitalisation in USD. Always returned regardless of cols. |
| data[].{col_name} | One field per metric requested in cols, using the exact metric name as the key. Values are in USD for financial statement items. |
curl -X GET "https://data.businessquant.com/peers?sector=Technology&cols=Gross%20Profit%20(Quarter),Net%20Income%20(Quarter)&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"
API Response — Sample Peer Dataset
Technology sector · Gross Profit (Qtr) + Net Income (Qtr) · 789 total peers · 8 shown
| Ticker | Company | Sector | Industry | Market Cap | Gross Profit (Qtr) | Net Income (Qtr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA | Nvidia CIK 1045810 | Technology | Semiconductors | $5.74T | $51.09B | $42.92B |
| AAPL | Apple CIK 320193 | Technology | Consumer Electronics | $4.38T | $54.78B | $29.58B |
| MSFT | Microsoft CIK 789019 | Technology | Software - Infrastructure | $3.03T | $56.06B | $31.78B |
| AVGO | Broadcom CIK 1730168 | Technology | Semiconductors | $2.09T | $13.16B | $7.35B |
| INFY | Infosys CIK 1067491 | Technology | Information Technology Services | $46.95B | $1.56B | $1.17B |
| MU | Micron Technology CIK 723125 | Technology | Semiconductors | $876.22B | $17.76B | $13.79B |
| AMD | Advanced Micro Devices CIK 2488 | Technology | Semiconductors | $734.73B | $5.42B | $11.00M |
| ORCL | Oracle CIK 1341439 | Technology | Software - Infrastructure | $561.90B | $15.14B | $3.72B |
| Median | Sector Median | Technology | All industries | — | $64.70M | $491.7K |
| Average | Sector Average | Technology | All industries | — | $3.00B | -$11.87B |
Endpoint Variations
The three identifier modes determine how the peer group is assembled. Copy any of these directly into your application and swap YOUR_API_KEY.
https://data.businessquant.com/peers?ticker=AAPL&cols=Gross%20Profit%20(Quarter),Revenue%20(Quarter)&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY
https://data.businessquant.com/peers?sector=Technology&cols=Gross%20Profit%20(Quarter),Net%20Income%20(Quarter)&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY
https://data.businessquant.com/peers?industry=Software%20-%20Application&cols=Gross%20Profit%20(Quarter),Net%20Income%20(Quarter)&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY
Peer Benchmarking Strategies & Use Cases
The Stock Peer Benchmarking API is used by quant teams, analysts, and data engineers who need sector and industry context without managing their own peer-group databases.
Relative Valuation Screens
Pull EV/EBITDA and P/E for an entire sector in one call. Identify companies trading at a discount to their sector median — a core step in relative valuation screens.
Post-Earnings Peer Benchmarking
After earnings, compare a company's gross margin and net income against the sector median and average to contextualise whether the quarter was strong or weak relative to peers.
Competitive Positioning Dashboards
Power a competitive positioning dashboard where users pick a ticker and instantly see how it ranks across revenue, margins, and cash flow against every industry peer.
Quantitative Factor Models
Use sector median and average values as reference factors in quantitative models — a single call returns the benchmark values needed to compute over/under-performance signals.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this differ from a simple company peers endpoint that returns a list of tickers?
Standard peer list endpoints return only an array of ticker symbols — you would then need a separate API call for each ticker to fetch the metric values you care about. This endpoint resolves the peer group and returns every peer's financial values in a single response, alongside pre-computed sector median and average. For a sector with 700+ companies, that replaces 700 sequential lookups with one call.
What metric names can I pass in the cols parameter?
Any metric name returned by the Financial Statements API is valid — income statement line items such as Revenue (Quarter), Gross Profit (Quarter), and Net Income (Quarter), as well as balance sheet items, cash flow items, ratios, and growth metrics. The cols parameter accepts a comma-separated list, and each metric name must be URL-encoded when passed in the query string.
What is the difference between the ticker, sector, and industry identifier modes?
ticker — the API resolves the company's industry from its profile and returns all companies in that same industry as the peer group. This gives you the tightest, most comparable peer set. industry — you specify the exact industry name directly, useful when you already know the classification or want to compare across a different peer set than the ticker's own industry. sector — returns all companies across every industry within a broad sector (e.g. all of Technology), giving the widest peer group and the most statistically robust median and average values.
How are the sector median and average calculated?
The summary_statistics block computes median and average across the full peer group matching your identifier — not just the companies returned in the data array if the response is paginated. The metadata.total_peers field shows how many companies were included in the calculation. This makes the median and average reliable sector-wide benchmarks regardless of response size.
What is the difference between a peer comparison API and a comparable companies API?
They describe the same analysis by different names. "Peer comparison" is the standard developer and fintech term; "comparable companies" or "comps" is the investment banking and equity research term for the same process — identifying a group of similar businesses to benchmark one against the others. This API serves both workflows: pass any ticker to retrieve the full industry peer group with actual financial metrics for each company, alongside pre-computed sector median and average. Whether you call it a comps analysis or a peer benchmarking query, the endpoint and the output are the same.
Is the Stock Peer Benchmarking API free to use?
Yes, the API is free to use. Sign up for an API key and start benchmarking any stock against its peers immediately — no credit card required.